Reflavoring Races

[Rechan]

These threads pop up from time to time, and I wanted to start a new one.

As a side note, I'd like to keep monster fluff out of this thread and instead put it here.

Race refluffing can come down to changing their origin, their behavior, or just their place in the campaign.

PirateCat posting about his refluffing dark elves and other available races gave me a bit of an inspiration.

But like PCat, I wanted to take it in a different direction. Instead of the Big Bad Race unto themselves, I had the idea that the dark elves are the dirty little secrets of normal elves.

[sblock]Shadow Elves, or Drel.

The Drel are a dark reflection of the Elves (or Eladrin). But that is not a statement of the Drel themselves, but of the Elves that cast that shadow. The Elven Courts long ago did not want to tarnish their image; they wanted the world to believe the image they put out, of peace and perfection and grace, of being Above the cruelty and barbarism of the Humans.

Thus the Drel were born in secret. A race groomed to be assassins, fell spellcasters, and anything in between. When the Courts need something done or covered up, something too heinous it would hurt their image, a Drel is dispatched. Each Court has their own Drel, bound in some way to the Court to ensure loyalty (their voice kept in a box, or some other insurance). Some Nobles have Drel as servants or slaves; it is a thing of high status within the Courts to have Drel loyal to a particular individual in addition to the Court.

Outside knowledge of the Drel, or a Drel unbound and wandering the world, is reason enough to dispatch other Drel to erase this potential threat to the image of Elves.[/sblock]
Other things I've done:

Changelings are not a race of their own, or even a race descendant of doppelgangers. They are the pupal stage of Aranea, shapechanging spiders. The Changeling has to be "approved" by a committee of Aranea before it can undergo the change into a true aranea.

Shifters are humans who bound animal spirits to themselves, letting the spirit of an animal 'ride' them. Their descendants then have a soul colored by the heritage of the spirit.

 

[Piratecat]

I love this sort of thing.

My current campaign has half-elves as the core of the empire's bureaucracy, and usually euneuchs. Those who aren't are forbidden by law to breed without government permission.

My tieflings take a couple of different forms: the 4e standard, albinos with small horns and snaky tails, and a few others. This stems from their origin; whichever Prince of Hell a particular tiefling family swore allegiance to, that's where they now get their appearance from. Presumably there's some with six fingers, small horns and very dark skin who follow Grazzt as well.

 

[Ktulu]

I, too, am a fan of race-refluff. In my world, I've refluffed all of them.

Elves are no-longer pointy-eared long-lived tree people. They are a race of gypsie humans who have an unnatural affinity for nature. Few trust them as it is believed they ally with the fey spirits.

Dwarves are the barbaric Yssge, powerful Viking-like warriors who've mastered the elemental spirits of earth, and created the ritual of Galeb Duhr (Goliaths), creating a warrior slave-caste.

Tieflings are the Beysibian snake-worshippers (changed resist to poison) and have long been enemies of the free peoples. They shave their hair and often tattoo scales on themselves. Their arms are often scarred with multiple snake-bites.

Then there are the specific ones, like shifters have become forestals, the wood-spirits warriors, or fire gensai, the chosen of Pelor, etc...

Repurposing often makes for great changes in a campaign's feel.

 

[Mournblade94]

I have refluffed alot of the scifi races of Alternity to use in a Mass Effect campaign set in the year 3000 when the citadel races learn how to trael without the mass relays.

Essentially I eliminate Fraal, and put Asari in that position with them able to choose between psionics or biotics. I have Cerberus as being the start of the Thuldan Empire and the Batarians and Weren are completely enslaved by them.

I have the Alliance (Humanity) as part of citadel space and a majour race for the citadel surpassing the Turians and Salarians. I also put the Humans in the Orion League as a different faction, where they are allied with the Vrusk, Yazirian, and Drallasites. Even though the Orion League is not a race, their nation is one of the citadel powers with a Drallasite serving on the council seat.

The Thuldan Empire considers both the Human Alliance and the Humans of the Orion League traitors to the race.

 

[Mournblade94]

Just incase anyone cares, the rules set I use is Alternity. I have converted all the mass effect squad member races to Alternity rules. The Star Frontiers races were already converted by Dragon a while ago.

I tried Traveller, and Hero, and SW Saga, but none of them seem to do the job like Alternity.

SW SAga seemed a natural fit, but I felt I was losing the sci fi and it was bringing more into a space fantasy interpretation.

 

[Chainsaw]

I enjoy doing this as well. I think personalizing the world, whether by reflavoring the races or some other means, helps create/preserve some of the mystery that makes the game fun. Some players may have specific flavors in mind, of course, so you have to consider that as well and get a little buy-in, I suppose. Ideally, you'd say, "Well, find another campaign if this doesn't suit you," but we're not all blessed with tons of players that we like. Anyway, enough rambling.

Edit: I'm tinkering with the idea of reflavoring the Warforged into either a) just a robot or b) an armor suit driven by a tiny alien (sits in the torso or head maybe) for a sword/planet campaign.

 

[Ruined]

I'm a big fan of the Obsidamen race from Earthdawn, so for the current campaign we reskinned the Goliath race to represent our stony friends. We kept the feats and mechanics, but the flavor is pulled whole-cloth from the Earthdawn source material. My player is a Warden, so the racial bonuses wouldn't hamper them as much as say an arcane caster (there were many necromancers and illusionist Obsidamen in the original game).

 

[weem]

Elves in my setting are the most 'tweaked'.

Elves in my setting were once the greatest and most powerful race until an event long ago fractured the kingdom. None know for sure what this event was, but it found the race divided.

Many moved South and became what are now called "Wild Elves" or "Jungle" Elves. They live in (you guessed it) the jungles of the South East. They are, despite the name, not "wild" and are as intelligent as ever, though very dangerous and distrustful of anyone not of their kind.

The rest remained in the forests of the Last Lands (aka "Forest Elves" - the default elf in 4e).

The Wild Elves, during a particularly harsh and devastating winter, crossed the mountains to the West and eventually entered the Zayn Desert. Some returned to the Jungles of the East later, some remained in the desert, becoming what are now known as "Desert Elves" which consist of two cultures...

- The Zu'Rakan, or "Desert Elves" (the default Desert Elf - focused on trade and profit)
- The Anashara, or "Scarabs" (now feral/wild elves that thrive in the harshest areas of the desert... think slightly mad Fremen from Dune)

More recently, when Man was brought to the Last Lands by the One God, the Forest Elves once again faced turmoil as their numbers split down the middle... On one side stood those who wished to help the newcomers who faced starvation and various outbreaks of disease... on the other side stood those who thought it best to massacre every human now, while they were weak.

The latter of this group eventually left the Elven kingdom for the great forests to the west. There, these elves gave in to their anger and hatred. They became what are now called the "Lost Elves" (not Dark Elves, just... evil elves who tap into the darkest magic, etc). Years later, as Mankind pressed beyond their new found lands, forcing other races back (including the Forest Elves), the Lost Elves smiled at their brother's misfortune and reveled in their suffering.

 

[Rechan]

I've seen some really awesome ideas here on NWorld. I wanted to share some of them - I don't remember the authors, so I can't give credit sadly.

Elves. One example treat elves like 1960s hippies. Constantly under drugs, utterly free sex, all about art, beauty and philosophy. So most can't tell who their parents are, and are likely too tripped out to care. Another had Elves as utterly decadent and superficial, putting the highest importance on beauty (to the extent that murdering an ugly person was not a crime). Then there were the Elves that were aliens - either literal translations of "The Greys", or simply clearly not from the Material world - cut them open, and they bleed light, and the only thing under the skin are glowing balls. A friend of mine had the idea of Elves being gem crafters - GROWING and cultivating gems much like growing a bonsai; these elves do the whole Samurai thing as well.

Dwarves. A friend had the idea of Dwarves inspired by desert-dwelling muslims; mathmaticians and spellcasters and sages, as well as traders, but their culture puts warriors as the highest achievement. I've seen the suggestion to cast Dwarves as tunnel-dwelling Spartans - spears make more sense underground than axes, and the dwarves steal babies (swapping them with slave children) to train as slaves (as the Spartans engaged in slavery too). A final idea is Dwarves a bit like the amish - humble, traditional, and wearing hats with stones sewn into the top, so the dwarf will always have rock over his head.

Halflings. Only two ideas I recall. Halflings as the Little Folk; living in forests near human communities, the humans would leave butter and cream out for the halflings at night,a nd the halflings would leave game out for the humans, as well as keeping the forests free of nasties. Halflings thus are the tricky wee folk. The other suggestion was Halflings as a parody of Southern culture; barefoot with big bellied Sherrifs, their religion focusing on preachers in tents telling about the holiness of Jaribus.

One real compstion I've seen is that the races were created by another entity to basically complete certain tasks. Elves, with their long lives and beauty, were clearly created to be the creators' vessels. Dwarves were created to be warriors and crafters. Halflings created to be the peasantry, and gnomes the bureaucracy.

Then there are the specific ones, like shifters have become forestals, the wood-spirits warriors, or fire gensai, the chosen of Pelor, etc...

Ooh, I like that.

 

[Somebloke]

What to do when you want to offer your characters meaningful choices but want a human-centric campaign?

Easy-

Dwarf, Goliath = Peasant hero. The serfs, farmers and former(?) slaves.
Tiefling, Half-Elf = Golden Blooded. The nobility and favoured ones, comfortable in dealing with power and prestige as well as blood and iron.
Aasimaar = Cloistered. Those who's lives have been spent training in libraries and monastaries across the world.
Half-Orc, Dragonborn = Bloody Child. Growing up in a world of endemic violence has left them natural killers and survivors.
Shifter, elf = Noble Savage. The hunter-gatherers who recall all the ancient primordial skills that civilisation has forgotten.
Gnome = Urban Ranger. Small, unnoticable, just one of the crowd.
Hafling = Wandering Soul. Born on the road, with the luck (and talents) of the drifter.
Human = Heroic Everyman. They may come from any of the other background but be bound by none of them.